Temple of Thieves

At the Temple District…

Vivian was walking down the street and she swept her gaze around her surroundings.

There were many buildings around and she was looking for the Temple of Thieves.

After accepting the Bukaroo quest and stepping outside the Adventurer's Guild building, she walked a couple of blocks away before finally asking people where the Temple District and the Temple of Thieves were. And once she gathered enough information and compiled them all, she finally decided to head to the location.

Vivian approached an old lady who was sweeping in front of a building that looked like a shop selling vegetables and other items.

"Hi, excuse me."

The old lady stopped and looked at her.

"Sorry for bothering you, but I'm looking for the Temple of Thieves. Is it around here?"

"That large building over there," the old lady said and pointed.

Vivian looked in the direction of where the old lady was pointing and blinked a few times.

The building was a large two-story building.

She returned her gaze to the old lady.

"Thank you so much," she said and smiled before leaving.

When Vivian arrived in front of the building that the old lady pointed at, she blinked a few times once again.

This is the Temple of Thieves…?

Given that the Temple of Thieves had the word 'temple' on it, she was expecting it to look like a temple. Instead, it just looks like any other normal building. Although it was as large as the Adventurer's Guild building, it had no holy or ceremonial aesthetics at all. Had it been named Thieves' Guild or Guild of Thieves, it would've made more sense to her.

Maybe the holy or ceremonial aesthetics are inside…?

She entered the building.

Upon entering, she was a little bit disappointed when she saw the interior.

The main hall looked normal.

There were seats on the side, hallways going to the left and right with rooms, and 3 information desks.

There were also some people present. Most of them were either dressed in fighting gear or in civilian clothing. Meanwhile, the remaining few were dressed in a uniform.

In regards to the people who were dressed in a uniform, the men were wearing a blue vest with white long sleeves partnered underneath with blue pants and brown shoes. Meanwhile, for the women, they too were dressed in the same uniform but were wearing a pencil skirt instead of pants.

That's surprising...

I didn't expect pencil skirts to exist in this world...

Vivian went over to one of the information desks.

"Good morning, how may I help you?" asked the receptionist behind the desk.

"Good morning, too. My class is Thief and I'm here to ask about Class Magic. I want to learn more about it."

Given that Vivian was a Thief and this was the Temple of Thieves and knowing that something like Memory Crystals existed, she made sure to make her questions sound broad enough to avoid being asked with specific questions.

"Please go to that hall and enter the second room on the right," the female staff said and pointed at the hallway on the right. "You can read the basics about Class Magic and other forms of skill and magic there. There's also a staff there to help you in case you need more information."

"Okay, thank you," Vivian said and left.

When Vivian arrived at the room that the receptionist told her to go to, she was surprised to see that it looked like a classroom and there were people, both customers and staff.

There were 4 large long tables in the center with chairs.

On the walls, there were rows of shelves about 3ft tall with pamphlets neatly placed on them. And right above them were boards with words and illustrations.

And lastly, in one of the corners, there were 2 medium-sized long tables and each one had a female receptionist sitting behind it.

Regarding the customers, they were all teenagers, but not all of them had an adventurer pendant around their necks. However, for the ones that had an adventurer pendant, they were all Copper I.

Vivian went over to one of the receptionists.

"Hi, my class is Thief and I'm here to ask about Class Magic. You see, I can't read and just more or less know the basics of it but I hope you can give me a short explanation of the basics in case what I know is wrong."

The receptionist noticed the copper-colored pendant engraved with the initials "I" on Vivian's neck.

"Class Magic are spells that one can only be learned by equipping a certain class.

"For example, spells like [Light Step] and [Lesser Presence] can only be used by equipping the Thief class.

"And to learn those spells, one must perform actions that are similar to their effect over and over again.

"Take for example [Light Step]. The effect of this spell is that it erases the sound of the owner's footsteps. So to learn this spell, you need to perform actions where you would sneak around without letting anyone hear and notice you.

"And once you constantly perform enough actions like that, you will eventually learn the magic skill [Light Step].

"Do you have any other questions?"

"I'm a bit confused," said Vivian. "How are [Light Step] and [Lesser Presence] any different? The way I see it, they're both about sneaking around without letting anyone hear and notice you."

There was a small smile on the receptionist's face.

Although there were no lies in the explanation that she gave to Vivian, a small part of it had a tricky aspect.

No one instructed her to do this, but this was her own little way to gauge the intelligence of the customer. After all, many people, mostly beginners, come here every day to ask her such questions. And based on her experience, one can't teach everyone the same way. Some needed more guidance, while others were quick learners.

"There's a difference between [Light Step] and [Lesser Presence]," said the receptionist. "To put it simply, [Light Step] is for sneaking in or sneaking out without being noticed, while the other is for stalking a target."

"I see. So that's the difference," Vivian said and mused for a moment before asking another question. "How long does it usually take before one can learn Class Magic?"

"As I mentioned earlier, one has to perform the same action that's similar to the skill's effect over and over again until they eventually learn it. However, when it comes to how many times they have to do it, it depends. Or should I say, it depends on the situation."

The receptionist noticed the confused look on Vivian's face and she continued.

"You see, the more dangerous the situation, the fewer times you will need to do those actions. Meanwhile, the less dangerous the situation, the more times you will need to do the actions."

"I see…" said Vivian.

"But please don't do anything stupid like getting yourself into dangerous situations just so you can learn Class Magic right away. Many have died prematurely for doing such things, including veterans."

"Thank you for your concern and I can assure you I don't have any death wish or anything," Vivian said and smiled. "By the way, I heard something about Affinity. Do you know what it is?"

"Yes, Affinity is something like gifts or talents.

"For example, let's say you have an Affinity for Daggers. And if one has that, they would usually practice knife-related attacks."

"But what about Class Magic? What if someone has an affinity with being a Thief?"

"Sorry, I don't know anything about that. But what I do know is that most people would choose a Class based on their personality."

"I see," Vivian said and thought for a moment. "Do you know how many Thief Class Magic are there and what are their names?"

"I'm only allowed to tell you the basic ones that I know."

"Huh?"

Just like any other Temple or organization, the Temple of Thieves also wants to boost the number of members in their organization to have more influence, power and resources in the city. And one of the things that they do to attract more members is to offer perks, like telling them what Class Magic they can get from the Thief class. However, that doesn't mean they will share all of the information. Some things are reserved only for the higher-ranking members of the group.

"Aside from [Light Step] and [Lesser Presence], there's also [Steal] and [Treasure Sense]."

"I have one last question. Is it possible to lose skills? As far as I know, there's Normal Magic, Class Magic and Lore Magic. Is it possible to lose them?"

"In regards to Lore Magic, I have no idea. But for the other 2, for Normal Magic, I've never heard of anyone losing them, while for Class Magic, you can only use the Class Magic of the Class you're equipping."

"Is it possible to change Class anytime I want, like in the middle of a battle?"

The receptionist raised an eyebrow.

"Are you crazy?"

"Huh?" Vivian said with a confused expression.

Seeing Vivian's genuinely confused expression, the receptionist massaged her forehead and let out a sigh before returning her gaze to her.

"I don't know where were you raised and you're already this old, but I'd let that slide for now," said the receptionist. "Listen here, not all Temples are lenient like the Temple of Thieves. Some Temples take their membership quite seriously. So don't go around asking questions like that if you value your life."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know…" said Vivian.

"And to answer your question, no, you can't. Once you change Class, you will lose all of the Class Magic spells of your previous Class. And even if you decided to go change back to your previous Class, you will have to relearn all of the Class Magic spells."

"I see. Thank you for answering my question. And I'm really sorry about earlier, I honestly had no idea."

The receptionist nodded.

"What about the Class Magic [Steal]? Is it limited to physical objects?" asked Vivian.

"Yes, but the probability is low. And even if it succeeds, it's random."

"Random?"

The receptionist let out a wry smile.

"There were incidents where bras and underwear got stolen."

Her eyes then turned to slits and there was a murderous glint on them.

"But don't worry, although it's not a crime punishable by death, any man caught or heard doing it will face the wrath of all women. NO MATTER WHO HE IS..."

"I see. Thank you so much for telling me all of this. They were really helpful," Vivian said and forced a smile.

"Don't mention it. It's part of my job and I honestly enjoy doing it. Also, if you know or heard anyone about doing such a crime, please report it immediately. It doesn't matter who they are -- even if they're a noble or a king. Those people are the lowest of the scum and the Temple of Thieves can't afford to be associated with such lowlife scums," the receptionist said and flashed a very bright and kind smile.

Vivian swallowed.

"I will."